


A New Case

by Lunanol



Series: Persona 5 Arena [1]
Category: Persona 4, Persona 5
Genre: (but they're not really), Crossover, Dialogue Choices, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Not sure if I should establish relationships, Persona 5 Spoilers, Slight Exposition, so they're vague for now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-09 03:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11095671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunanol/pseuds/Lunanol
Summary: It's been a few years since the Inaba murders. But it looks like the Investigation Team has another job in store, in a far more interesting city...





	A New Case

**Author's Note:**

> My first fanfiction/headcanon/whatever you want to call it. I'd love any sort of feedback: good, bad, constructive, even critical if you think it deserves it. I just want to improve any way I can. I certainly hope you all enjoy it!

It had been a while since Yu had been in Naoto’s office.

Aside from the single door leading in and the blue-curtained window looking out, the walls of the room were not truly walls, but bookshelves, completely filled with their namesake -- an encyclopedia set here, a fantasy trilogy there, amongst others. The solitary desk and lamp were no less impressive; the desk had woodwork so intricate Yu swore he could see the swirl patterns moving, and the lamp looked vaguely Victorian, with its fragile appearance. The color of the room made it even stranger, as the shelves, marble floor, door, lampshade, and desk were all a shade of dark blue. Yu allowed himself a small smirk – if Naoto had a Velvet Room of her own, this was probably what it looked like. He remembered the first time he saw her office, and asked whether or not its color scheme was intentional. Naoto panicked, swearing up and down that it was a complete mistake, but that fact that she never changed any of it afterwards made Yu more than a little skeptical.

“Are you laughing at my office again?” Naoto asked, her face tinged red with anger and embarrassment.

                > Of course not.

                It’s so blue.

                Are you sure it was a mistake?

“Good,” she said, calming down. Despite being a world-renowned detective, she still had her moments. Though her true gender was released to the public ages ago, she kept her tomboyish hair, along with her habit of wearing men’s clothing and suits. Fortunately, she fit in them incredibly well, thanks to her growth a few years after the murders. Right now, she looked as if she was ready to attend a formal gathering of some sort, with her pressed black suit and dark blue shirt, but only two men would dare ask her to one: the first was standing directly in front of her, the second was at a textile shop miles away. It didn’t help that Yu looked just as, if not more, prepared, standing about in his gray, button-down suit and black tie. “Then you might want to help those two get over it.”

He turned around. Yosuke and Chie were both standing in the doorway, mouths agape, as they tried to process exactly what they were looking at. Yosuke hadn’t changed much over the years; he kept his boyish face along with his hairstyle, but his build was far more pronounced, fitting the Dojima-style detective outfit with ease. If they slugged it out on the riverbed again, Yu was certain he’d come out with far more bruises. Chie was a bit different. She changed her hair after the P1 Grand Prix incident, and had replaced her reliable green jacket with a standard issue police uniform, wearing it just as much. Unlike Yosuke, she kept the same physique, probably due to her training and job as a police officer. …That is, if you ignored the fact that her chest had gotten slightly larger, which Yu did his best to put out of his mind.

“S-Sorry,” Yosuke said, walking up to stand on Yu’s right.

“It’s both what I expected and not at all,” said Chie, jogging up until she stood at his left.

“Well, if you’re done observing my office, we should get to the matter at hand.” Naoto seemed somewhat eager to leave the matter of her workspace behind. She opened a drawer and withdrew three specific files, laying each on top of one another. “I’d like for you to take a look at these -- Satonaka-san in particular. After all, I’m sure both Narukami-san and Hanamura-san have already seen these before, but it wouldn’t hurt if they had a refresher.”

Just looking at the first name gave Yu both a good idea and a bad feeling about why they’d been called here. The name on the manila tab, written in permanent black marker, was clear: Kaneshiro.

“We’ve worked on these guys before, right, Partner?” Yosuke looked worried. He also had a sneaking suspicion over why they were summoned. “Kaneshiro, Okumura, Shido... Weren’t these those weird “change of heart” cases that happened last year?”

                They were.

                > I don’t remember.

                Change of heart?

“Really, Partner?” Yosuke looked disappointed. “You don’t remember those super-tough cases that showed up for a couple of months, then just kinda… closed themselves?”

“Then perhaps this will jog your memory.” Naoto pulled out a familiar red and black card from one of the files.

“Hey, it’s one of the Phantom Thieves’ calling cards!” Chie chimed in with excitement, throwing the files in her hand. “Y’know, those thieves of justice who steal the hearts of the corrupt and make them apologize!”

                > Calm down.

                Oh yeah!

                I still don’t get it.

Realizing what she had done, she picked up the folders from the floor and placed them back on the desk, appearing rather self-conscious. “Sorry, it’s just that… Come on, they exposed criminals, didn’t they?”

“As far as the police are concerned, they DID kill Okumura during his apology.” The brown-haired detective told her, trying to stay objective.

“Oh…” Her eyes were cast downwards.

“Regardless,” said Naoto forcefully, attempting to reassert control of the conversation, “What matters now is that something similar is going on and we need to know why that is.”

                > What’s going on?

                Let someone else handle it.

Naoto laid yet another file on the desk. “There have been a series of suicides in Tokyo recently, around the Shibuya area. That’s nothing special, as horrible as that sounds, except for the fact that the family of each victim reports that they confess all their sins, as if they had wronged them, break down crying, then leave the vicinity, disappearing until their body is found the next day. Not only that, but the local police are convinced that it’s the work of the Phantom Thieves.”

“WHAT!?” Chie’s glare, fortunately directed at no one in particular, could’ve melted steel.

“That’s insane! Even if it is the Phantom Thieves, why would they go from stealing the hearts of criminals to stealing them from random people?” Yosuke was at a loss.

Naoto received their outbursts calmly. “Unfortunately, that’s the only conclusion they can come to, given what’s happened in the past.”

After her initial rage, Chie wasn’t sure how to feel. “So what do you want us to do? It’s not like we can just walk up to the Phantom Thieves and ask whether they did it or not.”

Naoto smiled, her hands clasped together. “Actually, Satonaka-san, that’s exactly what I intend for us to do.”

“Wait, what?” Yosuke was confused, his fingers at his temples. “How would we even do that? Why would we even do that?”

“As far as we know, the Phantom Thieves kept operating even after Okumura’s death. If they were truly guilty, why would they change Shido’s heart instead of laying low? The reports even say that there was a nationwide broadcast calling him out.”

“I guess that answers the second part, but what about the first?” Yosuke had started leaning from side to side. He wasn’t quite sold on the idea just yet.

“If they can change the hearts of others, one must assume they have access to something normal people don’t have. This is especially true as nothing out of the ordinary was found with each victim’s schedules up until their apology. We must also assume that they appear to be perfectly normal people from the outside, given how the police gradually proceeded with their investigation with little to no evidence found, not to mention the incident in which their leader somehow managed to escape a heavily guarded underground interrogation room when the authorities _did_ capture him.”

“You’re not going to say they have Personas or something, right? Haha…” Chie laughed at her own suggestion, thinking it was nonsense.

“In fact, that’s precisely what I intended to say.” Naoto confirmed it without even the slightest hesitation, as if it was a given. “Their method is too supernatural to be anything but, and we ourselves have affected the real world through the TV world. It’s the only logical conclusion.”

“They have Personas…” Yosuke leaned back against the table. “So there are even more besides us and those Kirijo Group guys…”

Chie’s eyes were closed in thought, her arms crossed. “It’s a bit much to take in…”

                I can’t believe it myself…

                > So when do we leave?

“Leave?” Chie’s eyes flew wide open.

Naoto smirked in response. “Of course. All the hearts changed by the Phantom Thieves were in the Tokyo area, and nowhere else. This leads me to believe that they operate locally, and must physically appear in the same area their target is in. We’d have to do the same in order to meet them.”

“Guess I’m taking some time off…” Yosuke sighed, his eyes dropping to the floor. He wasn’t too keen on taking any leave without pay, even if it was for a good cause.

“Actually,” interrupted Naoto, smile still lingering on her lips, “you won’t have to. I’ve already filed this as a private request for aid. It’s now officially your job to assist me.”

“Alright! Should we get everyone together for this?” Chie was in her old battle stance, pumped and ready to see the Investigation Team back in action again.

                > Sure.

                I’ll call them.

                What do you think, Naoto?

“My thoughts exactly.” Naoto stood up, gathering the manila folders. “I’ll copy these for everyone’s convenience. I’m sure Narukami-san can handle gathering everyone together. We ought to travel to Inaba first to make things easier. We’ll head to Shibuya once we’ve prepared ourselves.”

Yu pulled out his phone and checked his contacts. He had a lot of calls to make.


End file.
